HALF of Britain's poor own or are buying their own homes, a survey by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reveals today.

The research charity says this challenges the fairness of the social security system, as 92 per of money spent helping people with housing costs goes to tenants.

Most poor homebuyers are young, manual workers; unemployed, single parents or from an ethnic group, says the survey.

The survey's author, Professor Roger Burrows, says: "It is hard to justify this discrimination where 50 per cent of poor adults live in owner-occupied homes, yet receive only eight per cent of state help with housing costs."